Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 33

Verses 1-26

Jeremiah’s Seventeenth Prophecy (Reign of Zedekiah During the Siege). Israel’s Hope

Hitherto the general character of Jeremiah’s prophecies has been gloomy. The whole tone of this section, on the other hand, is one of hopefulness, which is the more remarkable inasmuch as it was delivered at a time when the prophet was subject to imprisonment, and famine and pestilence held possession of the city, and the prospects of the nation were at their lowest. It was under such circumstances then that it was announced through Jeremiah that the chosen people should not perish, that through them the Gentile nations should be led to a knowledge of the true God, that the Righteous Branch should yet arise from the house of David, and Zion ’shall be called, The Lord our righteousness’: see on Jeremiah 33:16.

Verses 1-26

1-13. Restoration and honour again promised.

1. See on Jeremiah 32:2.

2. The maker thereof] RV ’that doeth it’ (viz. that which He hath purposed).

4. By the mounts, and by the sword] RV ’to make a defence against the mounts, and against the sword,’ to make room for the besieged to erect defensive works. For ’mounts’see Jeremiah 6:6.

5. They] the besieged. The only result of their fighting is that they fill these houses with the slain.

11. Praise the Lord, etc.] Jeremiah quotes from the Temple liturgical forms: cp. 2 Chronicles 5:13.; Psalms 106:1.

13. Mountains, etc.] see on Jeremiah 32:44. Telleth] counteth.

14-18. Permanence of the kingly and priestly line.

15, 16. See on Jeremiah 23:5.

16. The Lord our righteousness] RV ’The Lord is our righteousness.’ The name is here given to the city, as it was given in Jeremiah 23:6 to the king.

17, 18. In these vv. the prophet declares the permanence of the office of king in the Davidic line, and of the priesthood among the Levites. The prophecy is sometimes mystically interpreted of Christ.

18. Meat offerings] see on Jeremiah 17:26.

19-26. God’s covenant is as sure as the ordinances of nature.

19f. See on Jeremiah 31:36 for the argument.

21. For the covenant with David’s line see 2 Samuel 7:12., and for that with the Levites (in the person of Phinehas) Numbers 25:18.

24. The people, seeing that both Israel and Judah (the two families) are being apparently cast off, despise their own nation, despair of any better days, and consider their national existence to be a thing of the past.